Dec 31, 2013

For some reason I had a hard time coming up with news items for this year's quiz. Not that the year was uneventful but somehow there were no sex scandals, jumps from space or viral videos which usually make good questions for the quiz. There were lots of deaths though, which is reflected in the questions, and while we're on the topic I'd like to mention that our field has also lost three notable figures in 2013: Leo Van Lier, Earl Stevick and Dave Willis (see my tribute HERE)

Dec 29, 2013

As the year draws to a close it’s time for various top 10, 20 etc lists. I
am going to limit myself to 3 and share the web tools that have undoubtedly been
my favourite this year. Three different tools - three different uses.

Dec 20, 2013

I’ve been tagged. Twice. In a blog challenge the idea of
which is to post 11 random facts about oneself, answer 11 questions posted by
the blogger who tagged you and then pass the baton by posting 11 questions and
tagging 11 other bloggers. Why 11 - I have no idea. If it had been up to me I’d
have gone for 13 (since it’s 2013) like last year’s Adam Simpson’s 12 of 2012 blog challenge (see HERE).

Dec 7, 2013

I use a lot of films
in my teaching: not just occasional Youtube clips but full-length authentic
feature films, and I’ve been wanting for a while to start a new section on this blog where I
would upload my film-based materials. I thought December would be a suitable time to share materials for many people’s favourite Christmas film Love Actually.Warning: some scenes are suitable for adults only

Dec 1, 2013

ELT conferences often have a title or theme with various presentations
loosely related to it. TESOL France’s annual colloquium held in Paris in
November isn’t one of them. However, this year’s colloquium, my third, had an underlying
theme for me – experimental practice. Here are highlights of some of the
sessions I went to.

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my blog!This originally started as an ELT resources blog focusing on lexical activities but with time I also started posting thoughts and reflections (or rather rants) on language teaching in general. I still post activities which can be found under the tab called For the classroom - feel free to use them with your students. Whether you use one of my activities or read one of my more reflective posts, please do drop a comment. Good to have you here!